Portable fire escapes



Dec. 20, 1960 R. J. MURPHY PORTABLE FIRE ESCAPES Filed Jan. 7, 1959 III):

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RAY MOND J. MURPHY BYQ 1 p 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 20, 1960 R. J. MURPHY PORTABLE FIRE ESCAPES 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 7, 1959 INVENTOR.

RAYMOND J. MURPHY vii! Dec. 20, 1960 R. J. MURPHY PORTABLE FIRE ESCAPES 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan. 7, 1959 Tllll I l Ill INVENTOR.

RAYMOND J. MURPHY ATT'Y United States Fatent PORTABLE FIRE ESCAPES Raymond J. Murphy, Alfton, Mo., assignor to Fred Medart Manufacturing Co., St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Filed Jan. 7, 1959, Ser. No. 785,501

Claims. (Cl. 182100) This invention relates in general to'certain new and useful improvements in portable fire escapes for school buildings and other structures of limited height.

Many school buildings and similar public structures are comparatively old and do not have adequate fire protection. The situation is particularly acute with reference to school buildings. The increase in child population in the United States within the last two decades has overburdened the educational facilities of the country to such an extent that it has not been possible to keep pace erecting a sufficient number of new school buildings. Old and substantially obsolete school buildings have, therefore, remained in use and are even overcrowded. Such school buildings have open stair wells, inadequate external fire escapes, lack automatic fire doors to protect stairways and hallways, and are otherwise quite hazardous. Consequently, there is an ever present possibility, in case of fire, that the stairways and hallways would be blocked by flames and smoke and that entire classrooms filled with children might be trapped on upper floors with no effective means of escape.

It is, therefore, the primary object of the present invention to provide a portable fire escape which can, in case of emergency, be quickly set up outside of a window by the occupants who may be trapped within a room, thereby affording means of agress through the window and down the side of the building.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a device of the type stated which is light in weight :and compact in size, so that it may be conveniently stored within a school classroom or other similar room without taking up any appreciable amount of usable space within the room and, nevertheless, may be quickly and :conveniently moved from the place of storage to one of the windows within the room by the children, the teacher, :or other occupants of the room.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a device of the type stated which is simple and safe in operation and will automatically lower a plurality of persons from the Window of a building to the ground at a controlled rate of speed and, when vacated, Will automatically return to Window level for accommodating an :additional group of persons.

It is likewise an object of the present invention to provide a device of the type stated which can be readily and quickly moved from within the room to operative position outside the window in a highly effective manner which is well within the ability and limited mechanical skill of children or relatively untrained persons under stress of an emergency.

With the above and other objects in view, my invention resides in the novel features of form, construction, arrangement, and combination of parts presently described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings (three sheets)- Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a portable fire escape constructed in accordance with and embodying the .pres- -ent invention in operative position outside of a window;

2,965,195 Patented Dec. 20, 1960 Fig. 2 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a window with the portable fire escape of the present invention operatively disposed exteriorly thereof;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 44 of Fig. 3;

Figs. 5 and 6 are fragmentary sectional views taken along lines 5-5 and 66, respectively, of Fig. 2;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 7-7 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 8-8 of Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 9-9 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 10 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 10-10 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 11 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 1111 of Fig. 10;

Fig. 12 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the lower end of the portable fire escape of the present invention; and

Fig. 13 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a four-story building showing a portable fire escape of the present invention operatively disposed outside of a window in the top story of the building.

Referring now in more detail and by reference characters to the drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the present invention, A designates a portable fire escape comprising a short tubular housing 1 rigidly provided at its upper end with a laterally projecting rectangular auxiliary housing 2, the housing 1 and auxiliary housing 2 being welded together or otherwise inte'riorly fabricated so as to form a strong rigid structure.

Welded or otherwise rigidly secured across the top of the housing 1 is a relatively heavy circular disk or. top wall 3 which is provided with a central aperture 4 and otherwise forms a partition between the housing 1 and the auxiliary housing 2. Rigidly secured upon the under face of the disk or top wall 3 and extendingdownwardly therefrom in concentric relation to the aperture 4 is a stationary center tube 5 which projects co-axially downwardly through the housing 1 andat its lower end is rigidly provided with an external cylindrical anti 'friction bushing '6.

The auxiliary housing 2 unitarily includes two spaced parallel side walls 7, 8, a top wall 9, a bottom wall 10, a rear wall 11, a front wall 12, and an intermediate partition Wall 13 which divides the auxiliary housing 2 into two compartments 14, 15. As will be noted by referer' ce to Fig. 7, the compartment 15 is laterally offset in relation to the housing 1. Journaled at its ends in and extending horizontally between the wall 7 and the partition wall 13 is a shaft 16 which carries a cable drum 17 having a hub 18 which extends along the shaft 16 and is secured thereto by means of a pin 19. The shaft 16 and the cable drum 17 carried thereby are spaced from the wall 7 by means of an anti-friction thrust washer 20. The cable drum 17 is provided upon its external face with a spiral cable groove 21 which has a plurality of turns of relatively large diameter and a plurality of succeeding turns of successively smaller diameter extending out to the hub end of the drum 17. At its opposite or large diameter end, the cable drum 17 is provided with an annular rim 22 and a laterally projecting cylindrical flange 23, the outer face of which is concentric with the shaft 16 and provides a braking surface. The interior surface of the flange 23 is provided with an annular series of teeth 24 in the manner of an internal ring gear, the-latter being adapted for meshing engagementwith a pinion 26 keyed, pinned, or otherwise suitably mounted upon one at its opposite ends in bearings 32, 33, which are mounted upon the partition wall 13 and the housing wall 8, re spectively. Also mounted upon the shaft 31 for rotation with the gear 30 is a spool 34 having a hub 35. Rigidly attached at its inner end to the hub 35 and wound therearound upon the spool 34 is a constant-force spring 36 which is also rigidly fastened at its other end to the bottom wall 10 of the housing 2 by means of a clamp-block 37 and screw 39. Preferably, the spring 36 is of the type described in U.S. Patents Nos. 2,609,191, 2,609,192, 2,609,193, and 2,647,743.

Also bolted or otherwise rigidly mounted upon the bottom wall 10 of the housing 2 within the compartment 14 is an elongated bracket 40 and pivotally mounted thereon at their lower ends are arcuate brake-arms 41, 42, which extend upwardly and encirclingly around the drum-flange 23. Swivelly mounted at about the center of the brake-arms 41, 42, are brake shoes 43, 44, respectively adapted for engagement with the external braking surface of the drum flange 23. Pivotally mounted upon the upper end of the brake arm 41 and extending across the top of the housing 2 is a rock arm 45 vhaving a short downwardly extending side arm 46 which is pivotally connected to a cross-link 47, the latter being, in turn, pivotally connected to the upper end of the brake arm 42. The rock arm 45 extends over to a position directly above the housing 1 and beneath a clearance slot 48 formed in the top wall 9 of the housing 2. At this end, the rock arm 45 is provided with an up-turned flange 49 which supports a short pin-shaft 50 upon which a pulley 51 is rotatably mounted and held against axial translation between a thrust-sleeve 52 and a washer 53, the latter being held in place by a cotter-pin 54. The pulley projects up through the clearance slot 48, as best seen in Figures 6 and 7.

The cable 21' is trained over the pulley 51 and extends down through the opening 4 and tube for securement, by means of a cable-clamping stud 55, within a plug 56 slidably mounted in and projecting downwardly from the lower end of the tube 5. The plug 56 is rigidly mounted upon and forms a part of a circular bottom plate 57 which is welded to the lower end of an outer guide-tube 58 which extends upwardly therefrom and meets the lower end of the tubular housing 1, the outer guide-tube 58 and the tubular housing preferably being of the same cross-sectional size and shape as shown in Fig. 6 and being releasably secured together by a manually operable latch L.

Formed upon the interior of the guide-tube 58 and I extending lengthwise thereof is a key-forming rib 59 which slidably engages within a slide-channel 60 formed integrally upon the external face of an intermediate guidetube 61, the latter being disposed concentrically within the outer guide-tube 58 and extending longitudinally from the bottom plate 57 upwardly into the tubular housing 1 and terminating just below the top-plate 3. At its upper end, the outer guide-tube 58 is interiorly provided with a plurality of circumferentially spaced antifriction slide-blocks 62 formed of nylon or other suitable bearing material, and the intermediate guide-tube 61 is exteriorly provided with a plurality of similar slide-blocks 63. On its inner face, the intermediate guide-tube 61 is provided with a key-forming rib 63' for sliding engagement in a slide-channel 64 formed on another intermediate guide-tube 65, and the guide-tubes 61, 65, are provided with slide-blocks 66, 67, similar to 4 the slide-blocks 62, 63. On its inner face, the intermediate guide-tube 65 is provided with a key-forming rib 68 which is slidably engaged in a slide channel 69 formed on another intermediate guide-tube 70, and the latter is similarly provided with a key-forming rib 71 which is slidably engaged in a slide channel 72 formed on an intermediate guide-tube 73. The guide-tubes 65, 70, and 73 are provided with anti-friction slide-blocks 74, 75, 76, 77, and the several slide-blocks are adapted for endwise stop-forming abutment as the several guide-tubes 58, 61, 65, 70, 73, are telescopically extended to the position shown in Fig. 13. It will, of course, be understood that the length of the cable 21', the length of the guide-tubes 58, 61, 65, 70, 73, and the number of such guide-tubes may be varied depending upon the height of the room in which the portable fire escape A is to be used. -It also should be borne in mind that the portable fire escape A should be fabricated of light-weight materials in order to make it as easy to handle as possible. For example, the portable fire escape A, as shown in the drawings, can be constructed principally of aluminum and will weigh less than sixty pounds. It follows, therefore, that the number of guide-tubes and the length thereof should not be increased beyond practical limits consistent with the weight factor as it affects portability.

Projecting radially outwardly from opposite sides of the guide-tube 58 in a direction substantially parallel to the shaft 16 are studs 79, 80, for pivotally supporting links 81, 82, and 83, 84, which are respectively welded to platform grids 85, 86. The latter can be manually swung from folded position to operative position, as shown in dotted lines and full lines, respectively, in Fig. 12. Also welded to and projecting outwardly from the outer guide-tube 58 are four handles 87, 88, 89., 90, as best seen in Fig. 9.

Welded rigidly to and projecting radially outwardly from the tubular housing 1 are two strong rigid rods 91, 92, which have sufiicient strength to support the entire weight of the portable fire escape A, and the weight of four people standing on the platform grids 85, 86. Rotatably mounted on the outer ends of the rods 91, 92, respectively, are roller wheels 93, 94, respectively, which are adapted to fit into and roll up along the lower inclined channels 95, 96, of hanger-frames 97, 98, the latter being firmly and securely fastened to the masonry of the building outside the window W, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The hanger-frames 97, 98, are each provided with wheel-retentive sockets 99, 100, and spring-biased snap-catches 101, 102, which extend across detent slots 103, 104, formed in gusset-plates 105, 106, respectively. The detent slots 103, 104,, are adapted to receive detent rods 107, 108, which are welded to and extend radially outwardly from the upper part of the tubular housing 1, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The snap-catches 101, 102, have manually operable knobs 109, 110, which can be used to release the detent rods 107, 109, when desired.

In use, the portable fire escape A can be stored in the room for which it affords protection. This obviously can be accomplished by setting the portable fire escape A over in a corner out of the way, or, if desired, a suitable cabinet or closet may be constructed in which the portable fire escape A can be housed at all times when not needed. Such a cabinet or closet forms no part of the present invention and, therefore, not shown or described herein. In case of an emergency, the portable fire escape A, since it is relatively light in weight, can be readily picked up by the teacher or one or two of the pupils, assuming that the room is a school classroom, and carried over to the window W. Meanwhile, the window can be raised to fully opened position and the lower end of the portable fire escape A, that is to say, the end to which the platform grids 85, 86, are attached, can be lifted up and over the window sill in more or less centered position between the vertical frame portions of the window. The portable fire escape can then be pushed outwardly until the roller wheels 93, 94, slide into the channels 95, 96. It should be noted in this connection that if, for any reason, the window is stuck and cannot readily be opened under the stress of the emergency it is possible to use the bottom end of the portable fire escape A very much in the manner of a battering-ram and drive it bodily through the glass of the window. Since the portable fire escape A is relatively long and the handles 87, 88, 89, 90, are conveniently remote from the end, there is little danger that the occupants of the room will be injured by flying glass, but, in any case, the emergency would justify such means.

By pushing the portable fire escape A outwardly and upwardly, the roller wheels 93, 94, will move upwardly along the channels 95, 96, and drop retentively into the sockets 99, 180. When this has occurred, the greater portion of the portable fire escape A will be over-balanced outwardly so that when the occupants of the room release it, the outwardly extending or bottom end will swing downwardly and the upper end, that is to say, the end carrying the housing 2, will swing upwardly until the detent rods 107, 108, snap into locked position, as shown in Figs. 1 and 5. The portable fire escape A is then in operative position for use. The occupants of the room can then sit on the window sill with their feet dangling outside and by grasping the handles 87, 88, pull themselves through the window and bring themselves into upright standing position on the platform grids 85, 86. The first two people to come out onto the platform grids 85, 86, will work themselves around to a position on the side away from the building and then two other people can crawl out and stand up on the side adjacent to the building. This arrangement is diagrammatically illustrated in dotted lines in Fig. 9. Thereu'p'on, one of the people standing on the platform grids 85, 86, will push in the latch lever L, releasing its engagement with the outer guide-tube 58, whereupon the outer guide-tube 58, with its supported platform grids, will drop downwardly under the weight of the people standing thereon and intermediate guidetubes 61, 65, 78, and 73 will successively extend in the rnanner of a telescope. The drop of the platform grids 85, 86, will be controlled by the cable 21' and the braking action of the brake shoes 43, 44, so that the descent will be slow enough to be within safe and practical limits. The unreeling of the cable 21' during descent will also effect a winding-up of the spring 36 and the force utilized to accomplish this result will also contribute to controlling the speed of descent.

The weight of the persons standing on the platform grids 85, 86, may, of course, vary, and it is also possible that there may be less than four persons using the portable fire escape. As the weight of the platform grids 85, 86, increases, a downward component of force will be imposed upon the pulley 51, and this force will, in turn, swing the rock arm 45 downwardly to increase the force with which the brake shoes 43, 44, are applied to the drum flange 23. Conversely, if the load on the platform grids 85, 86, decreases, the opposite result will occur and less braking force will be applied to the drum flange 23. Thus, the operation of the pulley 51 and the rock arm 45 will compensate for variations in the weight on the platform grids 85, 86, and the latter will move downwardly at a fairly constant rate under all circumstances.

As soon as the portable fire escape A is fully extended to the position shown in Fig. 13, the platform grids 85, 86, will, of course, be practically at ground level and the persons standing thereon can jump off to the ground. Because ground levels around buildings may vary, the distance between the platform grids 85, 86, and the ground may vary as much as eight or ten inches, depending upon the particular installation, but this distance is of no consequence in terms of the safety of the individuals using the portable fire escape A. Even children can, under the stress and excitement of an emergency, jump six, eight or ten inches, as the case may be, without injuring themselves. As soon as the platform grids 86,.

have been vacated, the downward component of force upon the pulley 51 will be relieved and the rock arm 45 will swing upwardly a slight distance to releasethe brake shoes 43, 44, and the spring 36 will become operative to draw the platform grids 85, 86, back up to window level very rapidly, and the outer guide-tube 58 will again become locked in elevated position by the latch L. Thereupon, four more people may climb out of the window onto the platform grids 85, 86, and lower themselves to the ground in the manner above described. This sequence of operations can be continued until all of the occupants of the room have been removed four at a time. It is estimated that the portable fire escape A can unloa a classroom of thirty-six pupils in less than five minutes.

It should be understood that changes and modifications in the form, construction, arrangement, and combination of the several parts of the portable fire escape may be made and substituted for those herein shown and described without departing from the nature and principle of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A portable escape device adapted for securement outside of an upper-story window of a building, said device comprising bracket means secured to the building adjacent said window, a housing having attachment means for removably securing the housing to the bracket means placed in operative position outside of the window, a plurality of slidably interconnected support members mounted in said housing and adapted to extend downwardly there from to the ground when loaded, a platform mounted upon that support member which is lowermost when the support members are extended, spring-biased reel-means operatively mounted in said housing, brake means including a pulley-wheel operatively mounted in said housing and being responsive to rotational velocity of the pulleywheel, said brake means being adapted for applying a braking force to the reel-means when the rotational veloci'ty of the pulley-wheel exceeds a predetermined maximum, and a cable connected to the lowermost support member and to said reel-means and being operatively routed over said pulley-wheel whereby as the platform descends the pulley-Wheel is caused to rotate by the cable and when the platform descends at a velocity greater than a predetermined maximum the brake means applies a brake force to the reel-means thereby retarding the descent of the platform, said spring-biased reel-means being adapted for urging the platform upwardly to the bracket means when unloaded.

2. A portable escape device adapted for securement outside of an upper-story window of a building, said device comprising bracket means secured to the building adjacent said window, a housing having attachment means for removably securing the housing to the bracket means placed in operative position outside of the window, a plurality of slidably interconnected cylindrical support members mounted in said housing and adapted to extend downwardly therefrom to the ground when loaded, a platform mounted upon that support member which is lowermost when the support members are extended, a cable attached to the platform supporting member and extending upwardly through the support members into the housing, said cylindrical support members all being co-axial and hollow whereby to telescope outwardly during extension and said cable being located substantially along the common axis of said cylindrical support members, said cable being trained around reel-means, brake means associated with the reel-means and cable means and being responsive to the velocity of said cable means for automatically retarding descent of the platform under load, and spring means operatively connected to said reelmeans for co-acting with the brake means in retarding the descent of the loading platform and also for pulling the platform back up to initial position when the load is removed from the platform, said reel-means, spring means, and brake means all being operatively mounted in said housing and removable from the brake means therewith.

3. A portable escape device adapted for securemen-t outside of an upper-story window of a building, said device comprising bracket means secured to the building adjacent said window, and projecting outwardly therefrom, said bracket including a pair of upwardly and outwardly inclined track-forming elements, a housing, attachment means for removably securing the housing to the bracket means and including a directing means for guiding the housing up the track-forming elements whereby the housing may be selectively placed in operative position outside of the window upon said bracket means, a plurality of slidably interconnected support members telescopically mounted in said housing and adapted to extend downwardly therefrom, said support members being cylindrical and tubular and each being provided integrally with guide means and slide limits for establishing a true linear path from the bracket means to the ground, a platform mounted upon that support member which is lowermost when the support members are extended, and weightresponsive means for causing an orderly descent of the platform when loaded and return of the platform when unloaded.

4. A portable escape device adapted for securement outside of an upper-story window of a building, said device comprising bracket means secured to the building adjacent said Window, and projecting outwardly therefrom, said bracket including a pair of upwardly and outwardly inclined track-forming elements, a housing, attachment erative position outside of the Window upon said bracket means whereby the housing may be selectively placed in operative position outside of the window upon said bracket means, said attachment means including rollers adapted to slide along the track-forming elements, a plurality of slidably interconnected support members telescopically mounted in said housing and adapted to extend downwardly therefrom, said support members being cylindrical and tubular and each being provided integrally with guide means and slide limits for establishing a true linear path from the bracket means to. the ground, a platform mounted upon that support member which is lowermost when the support members are extended, and means for retarding the descent of the platform under load.

5. A portable escape device adapted for securement outside of an upper-story window of a building, said device comprising bracket means secured to the building adjacent said window and projecting outwardly therefrom, said bracket including a pair of upwardly and outwardly inclined track-forming elements, a housing, attachment means for removably securing the housing to the bracket means whereby the housing may be selectively placed in operative position outside of the window upon said bracket means, said attachment means including rollers adapted to slide along the track-fonning elements, latch means for holding the attachment means in outwardly pushed position along the track-forming elements, a plurality of slidably interconnected support members telescopically mounted in said housing and adapted to extend downwardly therefrom, said support members being cylindrical and tubular and each being provided integrally with guide means and slide limits for establishing a true linear path from the bracket means to the ground, a platform mounted upon that support member which is lowermost when the support members are extended, and weight-responsive means for causing an orderly descent of the platform when loaded and return of the platform when unloaded.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 261,874 Rich Aug. 1, 1882 289,318 Smith Nov. 27, 1883 692,684 Lowenstein Feb. 4, 1902 696,711 Briner Apr. 1, 1902 983,904 Israel Feb. 14, 1911 1,141,995 Upton June 8, 1915 1,192,615 Frey July 25, 1916 1,646,133 Bechman Oct. 18, 1927 1,883,849 Vanasse Oct. 18, 1932 2,658,702 Osborne Nov. 10, 1953 

